Alleged Florida Serial Killer Attended St. John’s

Tampa police announced that they had arrested a 24-year-old man on Tuesday in a serial-killing spree in the historic Seminole Heights district. According to his social media profiles, the suspect was a recent graduate of St. John’s University and had worked last year with the New York Mets.

Howell Donaldson III

Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan announced the arrest of Howell Donaldson III, who is originally from Florida, on four counts of murder in the shooting spree that has plagued Seminole Heights since October. Donaldson was arrested at a McDonald’s restaurant.

A community member at the McDonald’s had contacted the Tampa police and notified them that a man in the restaurant had a firearm in a bag. It was later determined that Donaldson had allegedly brought the firearm into the restaurant. After several hours of questioning, Dugan said that police had enough information to charge Donaldson in four homicides—including the shooting of Benjamin Mitchell, 22, on Oct. 9; Monica Hoffa, 32, on Oct. 11; Anthony Naiboa, 20, on Oct. 19; and Ronald Felton, 60, on Nov. 14.
According to his Linked-In profile, Donaldson had relocated to Florida in January to take a job at a medical academy and his most recent job was at a shoe store.

Donaldson attended St. John’s from 2011 to 2015 and obtained a sports management degree. While at the school, he had a walk-on with the school’s basketball team for two years, but never played a game. He worked as a student marketing assistant at St. John’s from the time of his graduation in 2015 to May 2016, after which he was hired as a guest experience host with the Mets for the 2016 baseball season.